 The body and
bracing design was copied from a Taylor 712; my goal was to
emulate the sound of 812-C or 912-C. I originally designed the guitar with
the rounded Venetian cutaway, but was fearful of making the tight bend in
relatively expensive rosewood, so in the end I altered the plans and made
the pointed, Florentine cutaway. Though this required more detailed
woodworking in the fitting and finishing of the cutaway, I believe it was
the "safer" route.
 The back and sides are of Indian Rosewood; the top is Englemann Spruce.
LMI sent me absolutely lovely woods; the top, in particular, has nearly
perfect straight grain and subtle but lovely figuring. Brace wood, too,
was nearly perfectly straight-grained; I couldn't have been more pleased
than I was with LMI's stock. (No, I'm not an employee of LMI, and to my
knowledge, they do not know this page exists).
The first set of rosewood I purchased I attempted to plane to thickness
using methods described in all the books, but found rosewood nearly
impossible to work with. My plane was sharp enough to shave with, but
still, regardless of direction of strokes, pulled up substantial chips
from the surface. I was unwilling to invest major bucks in the low-angle
block plane that local woodworkers told me would solve this problem, and I was unable
to find anyone in local lumber yards or mills willing to thickness-sand
the rosewood. Since I was faced with replacing the matched back and side
rosewood set, I elected to pay the additional $19 and have LMI join the
back, and thickness sand the back and the sides to working thickness.
This was the best $19 I ever spent, even though it meant relinquishing
one major joint (the back seam) to somebody else.
I purchased several scrap side blanks, also from LMI, to practice bending
on, using the oval-shaped thermostatically controlled bending iron. This
also proved invaluable; I got through bending of the sides without a
hitch, but would surely have trashed the "good wood" had I not had the
scraps to practice on. It was during the practice stages that I abandoned
the Venetian cutaway in favor of the Florentine.
The top I thinned to 1/8" according to Cumpiano's instructions; in
retrospect, I could have thinned it a bit more. This was my first
acoustic guitar, and my educated guesses in many phases were balanced
more toward "guess" than "educated." Similarly, I might have been
able to scallop the bracing a bit more; while they are fairly thin,
I wished to err on the side of stability. Other regrets: If and when
I build another guitar I'll make it a bit deeper. I aimed for the depth
of the Taylor, but in the process, wound up shaving it about 1/8 thinner
than I intended. While it has opened up a lot tonally in the past year
and a half, particularly in the last six months, a little added body depth
would have undoubtedly added more tonal depth as well. The tone of the
guitar leans more towards the midrange and treble. It is extremely
responsive to dynamics, and very crisp and "live." It is substantially
louder to the listener than to the player; it seems to project
remarkably well. Not everyone I play with is pleased about this, and I
have to watch my attack or it's easy to overpower the "quieter"
instruments.
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The back and sides are of Indian Rosewood; the top is Englemann Spruce.
LMI sent me absolutely lovely woods; the top, in particular, has nearly
perfect straight grain and subtle but lovely figuring. Brace wood, too,
was nearly perfectly straight-grained; I couldn't have been more pleased
than I was with LMI's stock. (No, I'm not an employee of LMI, and to my
knowledge, they do not know this page exists).
